Grimm's Household Tales

Hans wished to have his son learn a trade, so he went into the church and prayed to the Lord God to know which trade would be most advantageous for his son. Then the clerk got behind the altar and said, “Thieving, thieving.” At this Hans went back to his son and told him that he was to learn thieving and that the Lord God had said so. So he went with his son to look for a man who was acquainted with thieving. They walked a long time and came into a great forest, where there was a little house with an old woman in it. Hans said, “Do you know of a man who is acquainted with thieving?” “You can learn that here quite well,” said the woman. “My son is a master of it.” So he spoke with the son and asked if he knew thieving really well. The master thief said, “I will teach him well. Come back when a year is over, and then, if you recognize your son, I will take no payment at all for teaching him; but if you don’t recognize him, you must give me two hundred thalers.”

The father went home again, and the son learned witchcraft and thieving thoroughly. When the year was out, the father was full of anxiety to know how he was to contrive to recognize his son. As he was going about in this trouble, he met a little dwarf, who said, “Man, what is the matter? Why are you always in such trouble?”

“Oh,” said Hans, “a year ago I placed my son with a master thief who told me to come back when the year was out, and that if I then did not recognize my son when I saw him, I was to pay two hundred thalers; but if I did recognize him, I was to pay nothing. Now I am afraid of not recognizing him, and I can’t tell where I am to get the money.” Then the dwarf told him to take a small basket of bread with him and to stand beneath the chimney. “There on the crossbeam is a basket out of which a little bird is peeping, and that is your son.”

Hans went there and threw a little basket full of black bread in front of the basket with the bird in it, and the little bird came out and looked up. “Hello, my son, are you here?” said the father, and the son was delighted to see his father, but the master thief said, “The devil must have prompted you, or how could you have recognized your son?” “Father, let us go,” said the youth.

Then the father and son set out homeward. On the way a carriage came driving by. At this the son said to his father, “I will change myself into a large greyhound, and then you can earn a great deal of money from me.” Then the gentleman called from the carriage, “My man, will you sell your dog?” “Yes,” said the father. “How much do you want for it?” “Thirty thalers.” “Eh, man, that is a great deal, but as it is such a very fine dog, I will have it.” The gentleman took it into his carriage, but when they had driven a little farther, the dog sprang out of the carriage through the window and went back to his father and was no longer a greyhound.

They went home together. The next day there was a fair in the neighboring town, so the youth said to his father, “I will now change myself into a beautiful horse, and you can sell me; but when you have sold me, you must take off my bridle, or I cannot become a man again.” Then the father went with the horse to the fair, and the master thief came and bought the horse for a hundred thalers, but the father forgot and did not take off the bridle. So the man went home with the horse and put it in the stable. When the maid crossed the threshold, the horse said, “Take off my bridle, take off my bridle.” Then the maid stood still and said, “What, can you speak?” So she went and took the bridle off, and the horse became a sparrow and flew out through the door, and the wizard became a sparrow also and flew after him. Then they came together and cast lots, but the master lost and went into the water and became a fish. Then the youth also became a fish, and they cast lots again, and the master lost. So the master changed himself into a rooster, and the youth became a fox and bit the master’s head off, and he died and has remained dead to this day.